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Derek Forrester
Lisa Hutton
VSAR 405
27 November 2014
New Media Final Paper
Throughout the course of history technological advances have greatly impacted society,
as well as the creative art world. Technology has enabled an explosion of creative channels to
develop and diversify the many mediums and concepts of art. When this new technology
became available to modern artists they used it to influence, remark and insightfully critique its
effects on society. In many instances the technology became the subject of the composition as
well as the medium by which to communicate the conceptual message. A symbiotic relationship
evolved where implemented technology was impacting society, all the while artists were using
that very same technology to influence and critique the societal and cultural effects thereof. In
support of this statement art examples from Muybridge, Vertov, Dali, and Bookchin, and Komar
and Melamid will highlight a progression of the technology itself, along with the ways it was
implemented in art for conceptual progression. By reviewing the complex and creative pathways
that transpired from this relationship, a person can better understand the significance of
technology within the art world.
Eadweard Muybridge was an early photographer who used camera technology as a means
of converging science and art. He was able to use stop frame technology to capture the world
around him in an unprecedented way. By setting up multiple cameras, he could show the world
a step by step photographic sequence of an animal or person in motion. The motion would have
been much too fast for the human eye to keenly observe on its own, so he employed the use of

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technology to control and manipulate the hands of time. Perhaps most commonly recognized, is
his work proving that a horse in full gallop contacts the ground with three hooves at one time.
This frame by frame analyzation of motion, gave an early insight into both the power of
technology, as well as the power of technology to advance art. The ability for humans to see
motion frame by frame represented a nearly god like view of the surrounding world. Though
Muybridge considered himself an artist first and foremost, his work transcended the boundaries
between art and science so greatly, that for many years his work was considered a scientific
study of motion. (4). His work also framed the groundwork for the invention of the moving
camera. In January of 1893, the first movie studio Edison's "Black Maria" started
producing twenty seconds shorts which were shown in special Kinetoscope parlors (1).
Muybridges work demonstrated the effects of todays digital art, in that it collapses boundaries
between the disciplines of art, science, technology and design (3). Muybridges passion for art
and technology also helped set the stage for a Russian born artist named Vertov to begin building
his movie database.
Dziga Vertov used the revolutionary invention of the moving camera or movie, to
document and elevate the lives of everyday citizens of society (5). His silent movies showed the
power and capacity of film to be nearly omnipotent, to go anywhere and to do anything. His
movies contained special effects that challenged the limits, beliefs and possibilities within the
tangible world. He applied many editing techniques to film, along with creating some himself
such as double exposures, compositing and fast/slow motion effects. Along with a montage style
composition, he set out to purposefully break away from the standard tradition of linear style
film. He created a movie database that set much of the foundation for modern computers and
their users to communicate with each other to transfer and share ideas. By documenting the

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surrounding world via technological devices, he pioneered a small scale internet of images and
ideas with which to share among society. A hundred years after cinemas birth, cinematic ways
of seeing the world, of structuring time, of narrating a story, of linking one experience to the next,
have become the basic means by which computer users access and interact with all cultural data
(2). This newly developed idea of sharing movies and pictures created a new language by which
society was able to transform their standard communication of literacy into that of pictorial
communication. The commonly accepted notion that a picture is worth a thousand words proves
that this new language; only possible with the advent of technology, forever changed the world.
If one picture is worth a thousand words, then this composite film database of moving pictures
could speak exponentially more than words alone. Vertov had broken the traditional standard of
linear film and thus paved the way for the next artists to apply surrealist conceptual ideas of the
human consciousness to film.
Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel collaborated on a surrealist film that used technology to
build upon the psychological work of Sigmund Freud. Freud was a qualified doctor of neurology
who shocked the world with his psychoanalytic techniques, theories and explanations of the
human mind. His ideas sought to explain the subconscious drives, fears and emotions that exist
just under the realm of self-perception. Though his theories were highly contested and debated,
he revealed a profound conceptual idea for artists to explore. Dali and Bunuel set out to explore
the dreamscapes and the surreal in their new film Un Chien Andalou. It was a film full of tense
imagery that provided a psychoanalytic insight into suppressed human emotions. The film has
some very graphic implications that shock the psyche and reaches deep down into the
subconscious mind and spirit. Though the film has no solid nor determinable plot, it
communicates a strong psychological message via a dream like narrative. The technology of

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film cameras were used to visually document and communicate what is possible or perceivable
within the subconscious human mind. The professional and psychological theories and work of
Sigmund Freud were transformed by these surrealist artists to give the audience an insight into
the drives, fears and dreams that exist deep within the human spirit and consciousness. Freud
professed his theories to comment and critique the human subconscious mind, while Dali and
Bunuel used technology to reflect these ideas through the medium of film art.
Natalie BookChin is a new media artist who used appropriated home-made web cam
videos from YouTube to create a video narrative that reflects on modern interactions with
technology. The vast array of skillfully edited videos of modern youth dancing in front of their
webcams shows that technology produces a mirror that reflects a vision of societys most
personal and intimate thoughts and actions (6). The artwork is both the subject and the medium
by which the composition was created. For this reason, Mass Ornament is a very compelling
example of how technology is used to advance art and critique society. The massive compilation
of dancers communicate a conceptual message about how intimately close our society has
become due to the use of technology. It shows that technology is a powerful force that brings
people closer together in ways that were never before possible. A digital window was created
that allows access to the world and in many senses breaks down the barriers of traditional
standards of privacy. Just a few generations ago, it would likely be considered a horrific event to
been publicly displayed dancing in your underwear for the world to see. Bookchin created a
work that contained a dynamic conceptual message because it can be interpreted inversely to
show the isolation of modern society. It is also realistic to consider that Mass Ornament
demonstrates the isolation and solitude that technology has created within society. Modern
society has lost the person to person interactions in exchange for text messages, emails and

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webcam chats. No longer do they give each other hugs in person, instead they send selfie
pictures or videos to share their digital persona. Appropriating and displaying computer data as
conceptual art was employed by many other artists as well as Bookchin in Mass Ornament. The
next and final artists are a team of two artists who used observational data, acquired from
technology to create new art.
Komar and Melamid are a team of artists who collected data from users to interpret and
assemble a profile of the most favorable elements of art, as well as the least favorite elements of
art. This information was collected with the intention of using it to exemplify the left and right
and limits of an imaginary scale of acceptable art. The left side of the scale was least favorable
and displayed art that contained elements that were unappealing to the masses of society. The
right side of the scale displayed art that contained an assemblage of likeable and favorable
elements. Komar and Melamid used the internet to survey the world about preference for art.
The survey asked many questions about what kind of art is preferred but also the age, education,
income, museum visits, favorite color, domestic vs. wild animals, indoor or outdoor, and the
season of the year, and whether the person was familiar with famous artists (8). Using a
computer for survey, they created paintings and songs that artistically represented the results.
The advent of technology within society set off a chain reaction of advancements that
impacted nearly every aspect of modern life, including art. Artists used this new technology as
both a medium and a subject with which they created art to critique and influence the world. In
review of the artists listed, it is possible to trace the pathways, channels and evolution of
technology in art. A person can then readily infer by example the many ways technology set off
a revolution of conceptual art that sought to critique and understand the effects of that very same
technological force upon society.

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Works Cited

(1) Manovich, Lev. New Media Users Guide. How Media Became New. PDF
(2) Manovich, Lev. Vertovs Dataset. Language of New Media. MIT Press. 2001
(3) Paul, Christine. IntroductionFrom Digital Art. Thames & Hudson,
2003, pgs. 7-25
(4) National Museum of American History. Capturing the moment. Freeze Frame.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/muybridge/
(5) Course Website VSAR 404. Most/Least Wanted Paintings.
http://www.artisnice.net/week-5-2.html
(6) Class Discussions